The story of

I am an ‘import’ in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen and I am (now) proud of it.

How did a woman from Breda end up in beautiful Zeeuws-Vlaanderen via Amsterdam and Antwerp? For love, of course. It is not the most obvious choice and friends (at first) laughed about it. What are you going to do there? That reaction turned out to be pure ignorance. Because it is beautiful here, with plenty to do, space and tranquillity. In one word: wonderful, but I too had to be convinced. That didn't happen overnight, but in stages.

I met my husband during my studies; we were friends literally from the first day. Like so many people from Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, he first studied in Breda and then in Amsterdam.

It was only in Amsterdam, more than 10 years later, that the spark really ignited. I was working for a large telecom provider as an e-commerce manager at the head office. He was working for a publisher, and due to the rather sudden and sad death of his father's business partner, he was asked, a few years earlier than expected, if he would like to join the company in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen.

After a few drinks in the local pub, he asked if I would like to come with him to the south... "Ok, but not to Hulst," I answered. I had just started working for my new employer in The Hague and definitely wanted to stay there. What would I do in Hulst, I thought at the time…

It had to be have a good connection to be able to travel to work. We wanted to go to a city and it became (somewhere in the badly negotiated "middle") the nice Antwerp. After wonderful years there, an interim phase across the border between Antwerp and Roosendaal and two kids, we decided to move to Hulst. My old employer moved to Amsterdam and with a young family that was really just a bit too far to travel back and forth every day.

It was exciting, moving to Zeeland after all; for me it felt like it was far away from everything and everyone. But it turned out to be a relief: the space, the peace, nice and close to the most beautiful beaches in the Netherlands, the friendly people, the Burgundian attitude, the largest Michelin star density in the Netherlands and everything you need in your daily life is close by. If you do want to visit a ‘real’ city, you can easily get to Antwerp, Ghent, Breda or Rotterdam. If you really give it a go, you can even get to Paris in three hours.

That is all well and good, but what about work? Well, that also turned out to be great! Together with my partner from Zeeuws-Vlaanderen we started LeNoir and quickly expanded it to a successful advertising/marketing and communication agency. Hustle and bustle here in beautiful Zeeuws-Vlaanderen.

In short, as you can see, I am now an ambassador for Zeeuws-Vlaanderen and I recommend it to everyone.